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Adventures with a Joint Big Girl Room

I always assumed the girls would prefer to be in their own room, but Nicole recently confided in me that she’d prefer to have someone sleep in her room with her. (She requested Mommy, and then pointed out that Daddy gets to share a room with Mommy when I said Mommy had to sleep in her own room.) I realize I’ve been projecting late childhood and early teenage sensibilities onto the girls. It’s totally reasonable that a four year old and two year old would prefer company to privacy.

The timing seemed ideal. Domingo has been on travel a lot lately, which gives us a built in excuse should our shared room experience go awry and I need to abort. I could tell the kids Alexis was sleeping over in Nicole’s room as a special treat while Daddy was away. If things worked out, we would keep the arrangement permanently. If not, and the kids kept each other awake, well they were expecting to go back to their own rooms in a few days anyway. Alexis had moved to a toddler bed at the end of March, so all I needed to do was move the crib mattress into Nicole’s room.

The first night was not really as rocky as I expected. Alexis did wake up Nicole, but both girls were emphatic about wanting to staying together and try again the next night. Alexis also settled down quickly under the threat of needing to return to her room, otherwise. Now that it’s been a few weeks, it’s safe to say this arrangement is our new normal. (And also that occasionally waking each other up is our new normal as well.)

To celebrate, I decided to redo the room to accommodate both girls. My favorite part? The die cut blackout curtains (pictured above). They let in just enough light to appear like twinkling stars and are so super soft. Usually I don’t trust my decorating skills and shoot for neutral, safe, colors. This time I went with turquoise and I love the splash of color. Ignore the color in the photo, that has to do with shutter speed and the abundance of sunlight sneaking in through the side of the open curtain. The true color is much closer to the one shown on Amazon. The girls’ favorite part? The princess canvas wall art. Cinderella is currently Alexis’ favorite, and Belle is Nicole’s so it works out nicely. Personally I could have done without the glitter and rhinestones, but I like the subtle design in the negative space, and really it’s their room so it’s okay that it’s not quite my style. Bonus it was 10% off.

In the coming days we’ll purchase a twin mattress for Alexis. We’re thinking about bunk beds for the girls when we’re sure we can trust Alexis to stay stationary in bed. Their room is large, but an awkward shape. I’m not sure two twin beds will fit comfortable otherwise.